#16: Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

[kareila]

Like Aristotle and Dante, this is a reasonably realistic portrayal of two teenagers in the mid-1980's coming to terms with their deepening feelings for each other. At the outset, I thought the story would center around two misfits who fall in love and are bullied by their classmates for being different. That turned out to be only partially true. Park is never really given a hard time by his peers; instead he has self-esteem issues with looking different (being half-Korean) and not feeling accepted by his dad (not being macho enough). Although Eleanor is bullied relentlessly by the girls in her gym class, the real monster at the end of this book is Eleanor's abusive stepdad. It's a good story, but needs a huge TW for the constant menacing threat of domestic violence, which lends a serious edge to the budding romance - Eleanor wants to be with Park not only for the usual hormonal reasons, but also because she only feels safe from harm when she is with him. Heavy stuff.